The Movie:

Directed by Darren Sarafian in 1994, Terminal Velocity stars Charlie Sheen at the height of his powers as a skydiver named Richard Brody - but all his friends call him Ditch. He's not the type to care about rules, in fact, he's a bit of a thrill seeker - when we first meet him he's jumped out of an airplane and sailing to safety with a star spangled parachute right in the busy part of town. He's that kind of guy, the kind that will jump out of a plane, ride a motorcycle to safety and then make a pass at your girlfriend, but he also takes his job as a skydiving instructor pretty seriously.

So seriously does he take it, in fact, that he's clueless as to how the pretty blonde that just talked him into taking her up for a jump - Chris Morrow (Nastassja Kinski) - managed to fall out of the plane to her death. Even the pilot he used on the trip (Melvin Van Peebles) can't ...Read the entire review

European art film directors of the 1960s seemed to like omnibus films. All the big names save Antonioni and Bergman participated in them, giving us such interesting and varied anthology pictures as Boccaccio '70, Paris vu par... and even Spirits of the Dead. Visconti, Fellini, Pasolini, Chabrol, Godard, De Sica, Polanski. Federico Fellini was once asked why, and gave a simple answer. As his public expecting a new masterpiece every time out, the pressure was such that his entire career was on the line with every new feature. But a short film "doesn't count." Fellini could try some off-the-wall idea, or an idea unsuitable for an entire feature. T...Read the entire review

The Movies:

The second Spaghetti Western double feature to hit Blu-ray from budget release superheroes Mill Creek Entertainment teams up two of the finest examples the genre has to offer, The Grand Duel starring Lee Van Cleef and Keoma starring Franco Nero. While very different from one another, both films are great in their own way and absolutely worth checking out for fans of the genre. Let's take a look...

The Grand Duel:

Giancarlo Santi's 1972 film, also known as The Big Showdown (which is what appears on the title card for the print used for this release), follows a man named Sheriff Clayton (Lee Van Cleef) who gets his mitts on a wanted man named Philip Wermeer (Alberto Dentice credited as Peter O'Brien) who has been accused of calling the patriarch of the powerful Saxon family. When a gang of bounty hunters show up with the intention of takin...Read the entire review

The Product:
It's all a matter of quantity vs. quality. Over the course of its four decades as part of the entertainment experience for audiences, home video has often turned on numbers instead of nuance. After all, filmmakers cranking out product during the '30s, '40s, and '50s couldn't have imagined that, a few decades later, their efforts would turn into endlessly repeatable cassettes loaded with magnetic tape. Even worse, the studios sold their rights away early on, believing (rightfully so) that there was no current need, outside of the Late Late Show on local TV, to protect their copyright. Thus we have the Hollywood Comedy Legends - 50 Movie Pack, an overstuffed sampling of sometimes subpar fare that finds its purpose in giving the cautious consumer as much bang for the minor buck as possible. While better than some other bulging compilations (especially ones revolving around so...Read the entire review

Budget thrills aim to bust through your television screen with Explosive Cinema, a new 12-movie set from distributors Mill Creek. 12 Crown International films are collected in this three-disc set, for a low, low $9.98 MSRP. Are any of them good? Well...

Disc 1, Side A: Killpoint (1984) / Low Blow (1986)

The set begins with a Leo Fong double feature. In Killpoint, top-billed star Richard Roundtree makes sporadic appearances while Fong does the footwork chasing down a mobster (Cameron Mitchell) and his crazy, civilian-murdering assistant (Stack Pierce, a man named to be in B-action movies), then Fong, Mitchell, and Pierce all return for Low Blow, which recasts Fong as the grungiest, on-his-last-leg-iest private investigator ever committed to celluloid, sent to investigate a missing girl who may have been taken by a creepy cult. Killpoint's screenplay w...Read the entire review

Seven years ago Savant reviewed a History Channel multi-disc DVD set of the old Victory at Sea docu TV series. As the quality of that release was good but not great, I jumped at the chance to review a new boxed set from a company called Mill Creek. It's ridiculously cheap, and comes in either normal packaging or a "Collectible Tin". More on my discovery below.

Victory at Sea seems to have been running in my head for the last 50 years. A staple on 1950s television made just seven years after the end of hostilities, this NBC program was a must-see for veterans, the first time their story of combat (emphasizing the role of the Navy) was told in an extended format. Edited from hundreds of hours of (at the time) unseen combat footage, and with a sweeping symphonic Ric...Read the entire review

The Product:
As teens, we went to the drive-in for two distinct reasons. First, if we didn't have dates, we'd load up the car, hide a few of our friends, and try to con our way into the all night horror/hump marathon for some good clean pre-cable TV fun. In between trips to the snack bar and peeks at the perversion going on in the steamed up cars around us, we'd witness one lackluster lame s-excuse for mainstream entertainment after another. If we were lucky enough to have a lady present...well, let's just say that what was playing on the massive movie screen ahead couldn't match the action in the backseat. In either case, films like the ones offered in Mill Creek's Drive-In Cult Classics 21 Movie Collection remind us of a time when privacy meant a trip down to the local outdoor Bijou, where entertainment value was less important than availability. Oddly enough, the same can be said f...Read the entire review

The Movies:

Mill Creek Entertainment, best known for their bargain priced collections of DVDs and for their low priced reissues of former BCI titles, unleashes the second disc in their Total Terror Double Feature, this time featuring A Brush With Death and Harvest Of Fear. Another bargain priced 'twofer' disc that puts a pair of micro-budgeted horror movies on one Blu-ray disc, like the first release in the series it's not HD reference material. That said, you can't argue with the price.

A Brush With Death:

Written and directed by Brad Weibe in 2006, A Brush With Death follows the exploits of five foxy cheerleaders (played by Seanna McDonald, Nicholls Melancon, Missy Stired, Ali Thurlow, and Anna Kalkowski) who all decide to take a trip to visit the countryside for a weekend away at one of the girl's uncle's fancy mansion. Not the brightest of...Read the entire review

The Movies:

Mill Creek Entertainment, best known for their bargain priced collections of DVDs and for their low priced reissues of former BCI titles, steps into the Blu-ray fray with their Total Terror Double Feature: Demonic / Uninvited, a bargain priced 'twofer' disc that puts a pair of micro-budgeted horror movies on one Blu-ray disc. It might seem like an odd choice, putting two low budget straight to video horror films onto an HD release, but here it is regardless.

Demonic:

The first film, directed by Johannes Roberts in 2005, is an English film originally titled Forest Of The Damned and, for some reason, renamed Demonic for its Stateside release. The film is set In England and it follows a man named Emilio (Richard Cambridge) who buys a beat up old van so that he can team up with his pals, Judd (Daniel Maclagan), Molly (Nicole Petty) and Andrew...Read the entire review

Apparently, Mill Creek Entertainment now owns the DVD rights to Steve McQueen's iconic Western TV series, Wanted: Dead or Alive, so they've released their own complete series set titled, appropriately enough, Wanted: Dead or Alive - The Complete Series. With all 94 episodes crammed onto just 11 discs, though, don't expect the compression issues-free viewing you'll find on a major studio's more upscale vintage TV release. Then again, you're not paying as much here as you would for say a Paramount full-series release set, so.... Essential viewing for anyone interested in the progression of the Western genre on television, and of course, for fans of McQueen. Let's look briefly at the series' three seasons.

SEASON ONE: 1958-1959 (...Read the entire review

Funny how false childhood memories tend to linger so well. For twenty-six years now, I've held onto a powerful recollection of the pilot episode of the 1983 CBS Saturday morning cartoon "Dungeons & Dragons," an episode which, in my head, was a fully realized opening chapter to a lengthy adventure. Rewatching the series for the first time since the Reagan years, I was shocked to discover that such a pilot episode never existed - somewhere in my imagination, I had apparently stretched out the show's brief opening title sequence into something far more epic than it ever was.

It's part of the show's economy, really. In sixty quick seconds, we're shown the complete set-up to the series: a group of kids are mysteriously transported to a realm of fantasy and adventure thanks to a portal located within a Dungeons & Dragons-themed roller coaster; the wise Dungeon Master bestows upon them magical ...Read the entire review

Wiseguy turns Spyguy and a couple of supporting players eat the scenery for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Millcreek Entertainment now owns the DVD rights for Wiseguy, the Stephen J. Cannell undercover cop suspenser that debuted in 1987, so they've released this bargain basement-priced, bare-bones set, Wiseguy: The Complete First Season, a 4-disc, 22-episode collection that features the two best-remembered story arcs from that low-rated but critically well-received crime series. Ken Wahl is low-key but charismatic, while on-his-way-down Ray Sharkey and on-his-way-up Kevin Spacey compete for the most enjoyably overblown supporting performance of 1980s television (guess who wins). You probably remember Wiseguy as being better than it plays today, but it's still a respectable effort for the genre.

Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=38761 Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:14:14 PDT Recommended

THE PROGRAM

"Wanted: Dead or Alive" is a prime example of a TV series that has cemented its place in history for reasons other than its overall quality. As its first season demonstrates, it's a can be a formulaic affair, and compared to other western series' of its time, in fact compared to a series of similar theme, "Have Gun, Will Travel," it's quite lackluster. However, while there is no argument Richard Boone was great as Paladin in that series, he was no Steve McQueen, and viewers tuning into "Wanted: Dead or Alive" got the treat of seeing a star in the making.

In 1958, Steve McQueen was a decade away from the iconic role of Lt. Frank Bullitt, and another two years before upstaging Yul Brynner in "The Magnificent Seven," and "Wanted: Dead or Alive" is a document to a star in the making. McQueen makes a tremendous impression from the opening scene of the premiere, as fearless ...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=38767 Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:19:34 PDT Rent It

The Movie:

While role playing games are still going strong, even if they're mostly done online these days, there was a time that many children of the eighties will remember where Dungeons & Dragons was king. While religious zealots around the country were proclaiming that the game would send the souls of countless nerdy youths to eternal damnation, a lot of us were sharpening up our pencils and rolling those twenty-sided dice in hopes of allowing our imaginary selves to slay the beast and save the day.

With the popularity of the game (then handled by TSR) skyrocketing, Marvel teamed up with the role playing game giant to co-produce an animated series based on the property. Debuting on CBS in 1983, it lasted for three seasons until it was eventually cancelled in 1986 and a total of only twenty-eight episodes (each running about twenty-four/twenty-five minutes in length). Wh...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=38750 Sun, 04 Oct 2009 15:24:38 PDT Recommended

The Movies:

With the passing of the late, great BCI, it seems that the Crown International library of drive-in, horror and trash films has shifted over to Mill Creek of all places. You know when you go into your local retailer and see those budget packs of fifty movies for ten bucks? Yeah, usually that's Mill Creek. They're not exactly known for their quality, but then again, neither was BCI before they went legit and they wound up being a cult film fan's best friend for a few years there. Will Mill Creek follow suit? Despite the fact that the audio and video presentation isn't all that and that there are no extras, this release (originally entitled Grindhouse Greats until 'someone' slapped'em for using a word they seem to think they own) is at least a step in the right direction, even if many of these films appeared on past BCI releases.

That said, you can't argue with the...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=37283 Sun, 17 May 2009 05:34:43 PDT Skip It

Regrettably, this isn't so much a review as it is a consumer report. As a nostalgic fan of classic game shows like What's My Line?, You Bet Your Life, and To Tell the Truth, I was really, really looking forward to Classic Game Shows & More, a four disc set with more than 23 hours of programming, mostly public domain material from the 1950s. The set is a Mill Creek Entertainment release, a label specializing almost exclusively in public domain titles, but I've been really enjoying some of their recent releases, such as The Adventures of Robin Hood, an interesting and fun British TV series.

Unfortunately, the DVDs I received were beyond unplayable - they actually seemed capable of permanently damaging the DVD player, something this reviewer has never encountered before. And though the company was quick to send us replacement discs, these had the same issue...Read the entire review

]]> Blu-ray http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=37143 Tue, 05 May 2009 19:15:00 PDT Rent It

The Movie:
I'm not sure if that was my wife or the ghost of Peggy Lee who wafted through the room and asked, "Is that all there is?" as I was watching Serenity Travel Series. This low-budget knockoff of such series as Sunrise Earth offers the same sort of soothing ambient seascapes and such that purport to calm the shattered nerves of the modern man by presenting him with 65 minutes of nothing happening. Your enjoyment of such efforts is obviously going to be based on your own personal response to this genre of BD. This is a no frills, come as you are outing, but on its own merits offers some nice scenery and at least a couple of unusual moments.

Serenity Travel Series bills itself as the first budget priced Blu-ray, and it shows. You don't get no stinkin' opening menu, the program just fires up. In fact when you get to the end of the 65 minute tour through various...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=36837 Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:20:52 PDT Recommended

"Robin Hood, Robin Hood, riding through the glen
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, with his band of men
Feared by the bad, loved by the good
Robin Hood, Robin Hood, Robin Hood!"

What bold action! What grand excitement! What... broad political metaphors? From 1955 to 1960, ITV's "The Adventures of Robin Hood" riveted television audiences on both sides of the Atlantic with daring escapades of the legendary outlaw and his merry men. The show set the standard for costume adventure, thanks to top notch production values and quality storytelling. The stories were so thrilling, in fact, that youngsters can be forgiven for overlooking the devilishly subversive messages being delivered to them from the leftists and the Commies working behind the scenes. How scandalous!

Of course, the marriage of Robin Hood and exiled Communists makes perfect sense - who better to champion the cause than a ch...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=36528 Fri, 06 Mar 2009 13:26:41 PST Recommended

TheCollection:

There are several DVD publishers who specialize in publicdomain films and it's often hard to know just what you're getting withthebudget prices sets that they release. Luckily DVDTalk has been able to get some copies of Mill Creek'soutput. We already have reviews up oftheir 150Sci-Fi TV show set and their collection of 300Western TV shows. Though neither wasperfect, both wereinteresting sets that are worth checking out. Our next Mill Creek review is for the intimidatingly largecollection ofdocumentaries and movies...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=36469 Sun, 01 Mar 2009 12:31:14 PST Highly Recommended

TheCollection:

Ever since buying a few cheap DVDs from Madacy in the late 90's I'vebeen very leary of public domain releases. They're very hit ormiss as far as quality goes, more often miss than hit. I'vepurchased or received review copies of films where the video quality inliterally unwatchable or several minutes are missing from thenarrative. (Not edited out, but just missing... I remember onefilm where two people were talking in a cafe and then there's amid-sentence jump cut to a scene many minutes later.) When I hadthe chance to review Mill Creek'sClassic Sci-Fi TV - 150 Episodes collection it was with a bit oftrepidation that I took the assignment. The fact that this setcontains some great shows that I would love to have in my collectionwas the deciding fa...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=36464 Sun, 01 Mar 2009 07:56:20 PST Recommended

A big brick of a boxed set, Classic TV Westerns - Collector's Edition is a massive public domain release of 300 episodes (yep, 300) culled from 35 different series, most dating from the 1950s and early-'60s, the Golden Age of the TV Western. Spread over 24 double-sided DVDs, there no denying that you get a lot for your money. With an SRP of $44.98, that comes out to about fifteen cents per episode.

This set is really for the collector and die-hard genre fan interested in more obscure offerings like Cowboy G-Men and The Last of the Mohicans rather than familiar fare like Bonanza and The Lone Ranger, shows already available on DVD in better versions, or likely to turn up eventually in authorized editions.

None of the episodes approach the kind of pristine presentations one expects from mainstream labels like CBS DVD, but all of the episodes this reviewer sa...Read the entire review

]]> DVD Video http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?ID=36231 Mon, 09 Feb 2009 08:10:23 PST Rent It

In 10 Words or Less
A screaming sampler from Brother Sam

Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: Stand-up comedy, Back to School
Likes: Sam Kinison (when I was a kid)
Dislikes: Loud for loud's sake
Hates: The "Wild Thing" era Kinison

The Show
When I was a kid, I hungrily devoured every morsel of stand-up comedy I could find, and I was lucky to be doing it during a golden age for the art. One of the acts that really stands out in my memories of that time was Sam Kinison, for obvious reasons. Known for his aggressive style and trademark scream, Kinison cultivated the image of the angry comic and became a superstar. I recently watched Why Did We Laugh, a documentary on Kinison that features fawning remembrances o...Read the entire review

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